Friday, March 30, 2012

A to Z is just two days away. Just two days!!!! Are you ready? I am partially ready, partially going to be flying by the seat of my pants. It will be interesting, fun, and challenging.
My goals are to keep my posts under 300 words, hovering around 250 if I can, always include a picture, and to try and stick with my theme which is . . .creativity toolbox.

What in the world do I mean by creativity toolbox?

Well, I hope to explore different ways to expand creativity in writing and in life.

To combat that feeling that I have sometimes that my writing has gone stale and repetitive, and to encourage others to be creative.

Please go vote at Unicorn Bell. My story, "The Identity Crisis of Captain Wrath" made it into the top five. There are four other great stories up for vote too. Please go read them and vote your choice!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

I am totally surprised by the totally unexpected placement of my story in the top 5 of the Picture Paints a Thousand Words Blog Hop contest. Please stop by there, read all the entries and vote. You don't have to vote for mine. I didn't. But please give the authors some love, and then stop by the original post with the linky list and read all the awesome entries!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Just wanted to let you all know that I feel much better today. Thanks for the awesome descriptions of sickness - I needed to laugh, it always makes me feel better. Also, if you want to read my entry for the "A Picture Paints a Thousand Words" blog hop, go here or just scroll down to my last post.

I am missing the Sensational Haiku Wednesday, and regular type posting in general today because I am plotting, planning, and preparing for the A to Z Challenge. I'll be back on Friday for a short "reveal" of my theme, and then the first week of A to Z I'll be skiing all week with 13+ family members. . .but I plan to drop in on as many blogs as I can in the early morning or late evening. I just need to get those first seven posts pre-written so I'll be able to ski, visit with family, and actually get some sleep too. (I'm not like some amazing bloggers out there, I need 7-8 hours rest each night to be an ok person)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Moonbeams
shining eerily through clumps of clouds, a flock of watergulls skimming the
rim of the Western Edge, sails taut against the wind and the Dauntless racing
along the sea . . .it should have been exciting, but it
wasn’t. Not for Captain Wrath, aka Douglas Cranton, Jr., who had made this
voyage every night for the last three lunar years.

He
sighed to himself in his cabin, pouring over the passenger list. In the next
few hours he had a burial at sea, a wedding, and a christening to perform. All
of these duties, plus he needed to recite his stirring speech about the danger
and excitement, the glory of life and death, and all that nonsense about living
on the edge of the known world. It was all balderdash.Out of all the cruise ship captain jobs
available to him after flunking out of the Royal Space Navy, he had landed this
one. At the time, it seemed more exciting than the pleasure cruises to the “Forbidden”
Isles.

Someone
knocked on his door, and he welcomed the interruption. “Come in,” he said in a
low, booming voice that he adopted for his job.

“Sir,
it’s just me,” said Telli, the cook, entering with a soft step and a discreet
closing of the door behind her. Her face looked pinched with worry. “It seems
we have a small problem with the wine we need for our three ceremonies and the
finale speech.”

Douglas
groaned, and ran his right hand over his face with weariness and frustration.
In his normal tone, he asked, “Would that small problem be Syparian Sea Slugs
or Davies?” Davies, the first mate had a penchant for alcoholic drink. In fact,
he had been transferred from one of the Forbidden Isle cruises due to his
inability to say no to wine or women.

“I
think it’s the slugs this time, sir,” said Telli. “I put out the salt like you
showed me and the beer traps . . . although I think Davies drank those.” She
whined and cowered a little as she spoke, keeping in her role as cowed cook for
Captain Wrath.

“Telli,”
he said softly. “We don’t need to stay in our roles in my office. I believe you
did your best, as always.”

“I’m
still Douglas underneath all this,” he growled, waving his hand over his
ghastly makeup and heavy black beard.

“Sir!”
she said sharply. “We need a Captain Wrath, and I think, if you don’t mind my
saying, that this job is far more enjoyable when you play your part.”

He
sighed, and stood, strapping on his double blaster belt, and his sword.
Thankfully the blasted parrot had died last season and he didn’t have anything
on his shoulder squawking in his ear.

Outside
his cabin, Doug took on the role of Captain Wrath for the sake of the paying
passengers. He stomped in his heavy black boots, swore at the crew, and threw
open the door to the ships’ mess with a thunderous bang. Once there, he slammed
the door shut behind him, and then walked quietly to the wine cellar. The salt
circles around the bottles were still intact. There were no slime trails, but
there were little foot prints, and he thought he saw movement out of the corner
of his eye. He turned quickly, and
overturned a few of the rum jugs in his haste, grabbing at a pair of legs.

The
little being struggled in his grasp for a moment, and then became quiet with
affronted dignity. It appeared to be a very small man dressed in green. “Unhand
me at once, you oaf,” he shouted squeakily.

“What
the devil!” shouted Doug, not even having to try for his Captain Wrath
impersonation this time. He glared at the little man, and gave him a small
squeeze. “I don’t recall any Leprachanarian on my passenger list!”

Doug
felt little pinpricks of pain on his ankle and looked down to see a horde of
the tiny little people stabbing him with their tiny knives.

“Stop,
or I will stomp on you,” he shouted. “You’re all charged with trespassing,
assault, and damages to Universal Cruise Lines.” Then with the hook on his left
hand he fumbled with his com button. “Cookie, get in here. We have
stowaways aboard,” he snarled. “Bring a sack.”

“A sack,
sir?”

“We
have an infestation of Leprachanarian trespessers,” he growled.

“We’ll
give you our gold,” said the little man in his hand.

“I’m
not falling for that one,” said Doug. “Your people are the reason I was thrown
out of the Royal Space Navy.”

“You’re
Doug Cranton?” the little man peered at him, with a smile at the corner of his
mouth. “That Doug Cranton?” He started to giggle.

“That’s
right,” said Tilli, from behind him. She smiled at him, and then using a broom
and a catchall bag, she swept up the other Leprachanarians in one swooping
blow.

“Nice
work, Cookie,” Doug said. “Now, throw them in the bilge with the rats, and find
us some drink in the cargo hold. We have paying passengers to attend to before the moon sets.”

“Yes,
sir,” she said, seriously, and then she winked. “Nice to have Captain Wrath
aboard tonight.”

I had a much different idea in mind when I chose this picture, but Doug, aka Captain Wrath, kept popping in my head and I had a hard time sticking with anything serious. For me, the picture was more like a writing prompt, and the story took off in a different direction from that starting point. For more awesome information and to see some of the amazing pics for this blog hop, follow the link above and check it out.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Sickness rose up unexpectedly . . . I'll post tomorrow or just postpone until Wednesday. I'm feeling a bit better at the moment, and have been wondering if there is anyone to post about sickness in a humorous way.

So sick, I though I might hurl up my knickers? . . .no, that's just wrong.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Many thanks to Yadin Bromberg for giving me the Versatile Blogger Award!!! This is sweet! I just met Yadin, and if you don't know him yet, I highly encourage you to check out his blog!

The rules/instructions that go with The Versatile Blogger Award:
1. Thank the blogger who gave the award and provide a link to their blog.
2. Select 15 bloggers you've newly discovered or follow regularly and give them the award. (I expanded this to include some bloggers that I've followed for a long while, but have lost touch with recently so I'm rediscovering them)
3. Finally, tell 7 things about yourself.

1. I love tea, but recently started liking coffee. It's part of the reason I stopped drinking caffeine. To join the legions of coffee drinkers in the Northwest seemed too lemming like for me. LOL - actually I stopped drinking caffeine because it was messing with my sleep and my diet. Mint tea, and Vanilla Chai Decaf are my favs right now.

2. I love to dance, but my left foot keeps me from dancing all that often. I love watching tap videos . . . like of Fred Astaire, Gene Kelley, my daughters, and Greg Russell. Who's Greg Russell? He's an awesome tapper and tap teacher who taught at a dance convention my daughters went to a few years ago. I'm not really into the Lord of the Dance type tapping . . .too stiff, no humor.

3. I love to laugh. Tonight I'm going to see Tim Hawkins and I'm looking forward to laughing until I roll around on the floor.

4. I love being a writer. I love writing, editing, and even revising although that part feels like work sometimes.

6. My name, Tyrean, is a name that my parents thought was unique. They made it up based on a character from a John Wayne movie that had two lines (I counted). His name was Tyre and he was a scout. They wanted my name to be more feminine (which to them meant it had to have an "n" at the end), and they didn't want it to have two "e"s in it. Hence, "Tyrean" pronounced with a "een" sound at the end but not spelled that way. Turns out there are many "Tyreans" out there - some from America and some from Ireland. I could tell many tales of mispronunciations and even arguments I had with subsitute teachers about the correct way to say my name. I even had an English teacher who told me that "ea" doesn't make a hard "e" sound. Hmm, really, what about "read, leak, teak, squeak, mean, lean"? I think in many ways my love of language came from the defense of my name.

7. I love the Lord with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. My faith is part of all that I do, even when I make mistakes.

Orginally when I saw this week's theme, I thought . . .oh, easy. Ha! I thought I would include something of my story here . . .but then I read the news each day, and battle seemed a painful subject. So somehow, I ended up with those three haiku linked together . . .and I'm not sure if that really makes a haiku when there are three of them connected. It's more of a senryu, I think.

So, anyone else have a poem or a story go a different direction than you orginally intended? Ever have the news affect your writing?

If you would like to join Sensational Haiku Wednesday or just know more of what it's about, see Jenn at You Know That Blog

Scripture Verse that's been running through my head this week: "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

F - "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, love, and of self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7

The F verse really hit home for me. I've been way too timid lately with my writing, and well, with a lot of different things in life. I need to remember God is with me, his love can shine through me, and he can give me the ability to have self-discipline in all things.

I gave up caffeine a while back, but gluttony has been too close of a companion for far too long. If I kicked the caffeine habit and suffered through all the pain of that, I can kick the gluttonous lazy girl syndrome. I'm not talking about 2 pounds here, I'm talking about 30 . . .and a left foot that won't heal up until I lose that weight. It's time to be serious and self-disciplined.

And now onto The Blessings of Ergonomics. I've been having pain in my right wrist and arm lately after I've been typing. My super sweet, wonderful husband bought me this perfect, unexpected present on Saturday:

And it's awesome! I can type without pain now!!! Hooray!

Now, the only pain I need to feel each day is from those leg lifts I really need to do.
I will defeat the pear shape!

Do you have any issues with timidity or self-discipline? If so, how do you deal with it?

Oh, and Guess What?! Karen Lange is celebrating her blogaversary with chocolate! Go to her blog, Write Now for details! Happy Blogaverary Karen!!!!

Keeping to rule #3 was tough for me on this one because currently I'm struggling with my third draft. I made major plot changes. The ending seemed impossible to write, and I kept writing junk chapters that delayed writing the end. I struggled and struggled, and finally decided to print out the mess and see if it made more sense after I had killed a small tree.

My ten-year-old daughter woke up in the midst of the print job, and asked if she could read it. I gave her a pink highlighter, and she found two typos in the first ten minutes of reading, asked me questions like "why doesn't the evil villainess kill the king off and just take over?" and in the midst of our discussion gave me an idea that helped me write one of the end scenes.

So I really wanted to fix that section from page 77, but instead I covered my draft withpink and green highlighters, and orangesticky notes.

Anyone else in the midst of a struggle to end their manuscript? Have any kid beta readers who are willing to ask you tough questions about your plot?

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Introduced to Sensational Haiku Wednesday by Tara Tyler, I decided to give it a try this week . . . and it was challenging, but challenging is good, right?
Especially when I've been feeling like my blog and my writing both need something new, a kick of creativity.
So, enough, meandering and stalling . . . here's my haiku for Sensational Haiku Wednesday. The theme this week is excite(ment).

Monday, March 12, 2012

If you look closely at the picture you'll see the cat's disgruntled reflection in the glass. I wish I had captured my cat like this . . .she seems to think that the rain is my fault. A little drizzle doesn't bother her, but today is a full out rain kind of day, and she went from door to door asking to be let out, and looking at me when the heavy rain happened to be outside every single door . . . as if I had turned on a mega sprinkler outside every exit.

Finally, she decided to go out on our back deck and dig her claws into the doghouse a few times to ease the tension.

The rain is actually beautiful, especially when it clings to the railing in heavy drops along the edge of the deck.

My students at our homeschool co-op were awesome.
Their attitudes were perfect, my creative writers club/class wowed me again,
my writers' workshop adventure class enjoyed writing a skit together,
and my C.S. Lewis class wrote "we love you Mrs. Martinson" on the board before I came in . . .
and I loved reading their character diaries for the characters in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of my favorite books.

But I feeling like letting out a sigh, and cuddling up in a large pile of my grandma's old handmade quilts (nearly in tatters now), and having a huge cup of tea and calling it a day.

Why do I feel like Puddlegum instead of Reepicheep today? I'm not sure. At least I'm not having a Eustace kind of day, although my cat clearly is.

Ever have a day like that? The kind of day where the world is pretty wonderful, but instead of embracing it you feel like wrapping yourself up in a blanket with a mug of something hot and a good book?

I need to take my girls to ballet, but I am tempted to just curl up and read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader again.

Friday, March 9, 2012

The day went on, and I dismissed the conversation, until a few days ago, when some friends and I were talking about every day things and thankfulness.

When we first moved to our house 10 years ago, in this area that mixes suburban and rural life, with a small wooded area in our backyard, we exclaimed over every woodpecker, coyote, deer, racoon, owl, heron, crane, rabbit, newt, butterfly, and stinkbug. Sometime between now and then, most of those sightings have become commonplace.

I used to wake up at night, awed by the sounds of deer calls, coyote howls, and owl hoots. Now I wake up, roll over and go back to sleep.

On spring mornings my family and I used to be surprised by the woodpeckers' determination to knock their heads against not only trees but metal ladders, and other objects. Now we know that the loudest males get the best mates, and we wish they would just find someone else's house to bang their heads against.

When did I lose my sense of wonder?

When I woke today and noticed the glorious wonder of a blue sky Northwest morning, I decided I wanted to regain my wonder. I'm going to keep my eyes wide open today.

What wonders do you see around you? Do you overlook them sometimes?

Also, I wanted to thank all the awesome people that stopped by for IWSG. The encouragement given is sweet, and I just want to send a SHOUT OUT of THANKS to Alex J. Cavanaugh for starting it. THANK YOU ALEX! Now, go, read his new book, CassaFire!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

On the days that I don’t believe in my writing,
and I’m having trouble seeing the worth of strangling words into sentences to
hang a story by a gnarled plot rope, there are three things that help me:

1.Prayer

2.Reading other people’s posts about writing

3.Reading my own published writing. True, it’s all
poetry, short fiction and devotional writing, and most of it is on-line, with
little in print. But it helps. A lot.
Even when I see mistakes in those published pieces . . . I still can say, “There,
that’s me. I’ve done it before, I can do it again.”

Monday, March 5, 2012

Definition of prose poetry by Wikipedia: poetry written in prose instead of
using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as
heightened imagery and emotional effects. Wikipedia Link on Prose

Say what?

In my definition: prose poetry is a short piece of writing that captures the essence of a moment in time, conveys the emotion and thoughts of the character (narrator), and fully engages all the senses.

When I think of prose poetry I think of two prose poems by Bruce Holland Rogers at Flash Fiction Online. Check out his essay on prose poetry here at Small Rebellions, and scroll down to the bottom to see his two prose poems, "Yellowstone Burning" and "Small Town in a Snowstorm".

There are many different examples of prose poetry. Some look like microfiction pieces. Some are lengthy to the point of being flash fiction. Some combine verse and prose in combination. Any way you read or write prose poetry it breaks the easy definition of poetry being linked with verse, which is the whole point of it's creation and it's persistence in the world of poetry.

Some poets like to break the rules.

That shouldn't be too surprising. Poets are, well, a little different, even "normal" every day poets.

Friday, March 2, 2012

Is it possible to link The Hunger Games trilogy with a history lesson?

Yes.

We discovered this as my youngest was in the midst of reading the third book in the trilogy, Mockingjay. She was delighted to share with me her laughter over the name of the country where Katniss lived. Panem and Circenses, which means bread and circus. I smiled, and then I thought, wait, what? how did I miss that when I read it? Bread and Circuses. There's historical significance there, and it goes with our recent history lessons about Julius Caesar and the Roman Empire.

Julius Caesar rose to popularity with the people partly because he gave out bread, and supported the games at the coleseum. The Roman Empire continued to give the people appeasement through those same practices until it collapsed. For a more intellectual rundown of this, go see Wikipedia on Bread and Circuses.

Suzanne Collins cleverly intertwines historical significance in naming the nation in The Hunger Games trilogy Panem and Cirenses. I continue to be amazed by the detailed depths in her writing.

I'm also thankful that I homeschool my kids, because I don't think we would have caught that part otherwise. True, my youngest is rather young for reading The Hunger Games, but when she is capable of reading everything in the house, where do I draw the line and when? It's a blessing and a difficulty to have an avid ten year old reader. I am constantly challenged to find books for her that are "just for fun" books.

And to think I used to worry about my kids reading skills 5-6 years ago . . .things have changed.

So, do you know of any good books out there for ten year olds that can read at a high school to adult level?

And did you already know about the Bread and Circus history lesson in Mockingjay?

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